NEW YORK CITY—Audience members had rave reviews for Shen Yun Performing Arts during its 18-show run at Lincoln Center in New York City.

“The artistry is impeccable,” said Frank Dellapolla, a retired ballet dancer who has performed across the United States, Europe, and Asia. He watched Shen Yun with his family on April 6. He said his wife and son are dancers too, “so for us, as classical dancers, this is just amazing.”

All 18 shows sold out, and tickets were opened up for seats that had previously been blocked off because of their partial view of the stage, resulting in an average 103 percent-sold house over the course of 2 1/2 weeks.

Founded in New York in 2006, Shen Yun has a mission to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization through music and dance. Its tagline is “China before communism.”

“The good work that’s being done like this will transcend time,” said Frederick Newcomb, an investment company president and pioneer in the mutual funds industry.

He wished to thank the artists “for showing us and having us see the evolution of the divine introduction of China and its evolution in mankind as it grew.”

“And you’re bringing it all forth, for the world to see, which is wonderful. Otherwise, it might not have a chance to do this,” he said.

Newcomb attended this year’s performance with Cecelia Crowley, a financial advisory firm manager who has had a long career in the performing arts.

“Absolutely artistically articulated in the most beautiful sense—the costumes, the staging, the music, the instrumentation, everything was superb,” Crowley said. “I was taught as a performer that in the arts, we imitate the divine—that when you are an artist, we might approach heavenly things. And that was greatly demonstrated today.”

The name “Shen Yun” translates from Chinese to “the beauty of divine beings dancing.”

Crowley said she felt within the performance the keystones to civilization—“kindness and compassion”—and said anyone of any age would enjoy and benefit from seeing it.

Dellapolla also remarked on the technique of the classically trained dancers.

“Their skills are impeccable,” he said. “The feet are beautiful, the women have that incredible extension and the ability to control and move.

“Not just technique though, it’s the artistic expression behind it, there’s a real sense of—they bring a culture, they bring expression, and they bring the control, so they’ve integrated both the artistry and the technique,” he said.

“It is the expression of a more ancient cultural Chinese sense of Buddhism, religion, heritage, free [from] communism, which I think for a lot of us in this country now is important because this country has become so dry and so devoid of spirituality and too easily taken in by socialism, communism, that they really need to learn how important, how pristine, how deep things were before communism,” Dellapolla said.

“It is a ... wonderful, deep, and important artistic statement,” he said. “That comes through on top of the impeccable artistry.”

Composer Joe Gianono, who, in his prolific career has written several works for ballet, said Shen Yun was a “magnificent, absolutely magnificent” production.

“It’s sort of like ... the history of humanity in a big ball of art, it was beautiful,” he said.

Shen Yun was founded by artists from around the world, several of whom had experienced religious persecution in China and sought freedom of expression overseas.

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But since Shen Yun’s inception, it has been on the receiving end of the Chinese communist regime’s propaganda machine, as the company reiterated in public statements earlier this season.

Shen Yun artists practice Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, a spiritual discipline that teaches the principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance. It gained widespread popularity upon its introduction to the public in China in the early 1990s, but in 1999, the Chinese Communist Party banned the practice and launched a violent persecution campaign targeting its practitioners.

The violent abductions, forced labor, and live organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners continue to this day, and Shen Yun programs often include a story-based dance that spotlights this issue.

At the start of Shen Yun’s 18-show run in New York City, the company held a press conference to announce that 1,500 current and former artists and their family members were calling for an investigation into the repeated and heightened threats made against the artists.

The new narrative did not escape the notice of some Lincoln Center audience members, one of whom said the supposed controversy made them want to see the performance for themselves.

Overwhelmingly, Shen Yun audience members said after the performances that they wished Shen Yun could one day perform in China.

“This is Chinese history, right? And it’s almost like, well, how can you not practice this in China? It’s your history, it’s your tradition—something that should be honored and revered,” said Neil Kearns, managing director of a bank, after watching Shen Yun on April 6.

“And yet, no, you can’t do it there. You can only show it outside the country. That’s really quite sad.”

Kearns said the show was “absolutely wonderful.”

“This is a very, very unique show to see the background, see the tradition, see the history. It’s a great experience,” he said.

Rosa hoped that the people in China could see Shen Yun as well, “and learn from it, and just get back to the beauty of it.”

“Bring back this beautiful culture in China. That would be beautiful,” he said.

“This is amazing, this is so beautiful. I can’t believe it’s not allowed in China. I can’t believe that. It’s amazing. We’re enjoying it, thank God,” he said.